Paramhansa Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda came to the West from India in 1920, bringing a new vision of how to live. He lectured across the United States drawing thousands, and filling the largest auditoriums in the country. During the three decades he lived in America, he met many of the well-known figures of the time: President Calvin Coolidge, industrialist Henry Ford, and agricultural inventor Luther Burbank, to name just a few.

Even after Yogananda’s passing in 1952, his Autobiography of a Yogi continues to inspire influential people such as George Harrison, Gene Roddenberry (creator of the Star Trek series), and Steve Jobs. He is widely known as the “Father of Yoga” in the West.

What are some of the revolutionary teachings that Yogananda brought to the American mindscape?

The Practice of Meditation Is Vitally Important

He taught that meditation is not an archaic ritual relegated to remote monasteries or caves, but that its practice can greatly improve our daily life. When he came to the United States virtually no one there meditated. Now millions do so regularly.

The Transformative Ability of Our Brain

Decades before scientists began to prove it as a fact, Yogananda stated that meditation actually changes and rejuvenates the cells of our brain for greater mental clarity and power.

The Use of Will Power to Draw Success

He taught practical techniques to control and strengthen will power and to draw energy from universal sources. This heightened energy magnetically attracts success, improved health, and solutions to problems in our daily life.

God Can Be Brought into All Aspects of Our Life

Perhaps most important of all, Yogananda taught that making God central to daily life can enhance and uplift everything we do. Paramhansa Yogananda’s message might be summed up as “A Practice Guide to Finding True Happiness in Life.”

But it’s only in the living of these teachings that their real power is revealed. Swami Kriyananda, a close, direct disciple of Yogananda, furthered his guru’s mission by creating eight “world brotherhood colonies” throughout the world. In these communities, Yogananda’s “How to Live” principles have been practiced on a daily basis for the past nearly fifty years, and their value has been proven.